Chapter 38.2- Doom Days

On one side, Dumbledore. Behind him lay a crowd of the sick, the injured, the dead, and dying. It was the quintessential knight in shining armour situation where he stood before the downtrodden, trying to protect them from the big bad wold. The big bad wolf in this case was Voldemort. And he stood on the other side. His followers— the death eaters stood behind him, egging him on as he faced what the world had known as its most powerful wizard. This was the duel that cemented, Voldemort’s legend, Flitwick had said, but that wasn’t what had made me hesitate to watch it.

No, what had caused my hesitation was how he looked. This was not the serpentine monster of the movies. This was an older Tom Riddle. The only clear difference between him and the one I had memories of looking at in the mirror was the eyes/ Sure, Voldemort had lost all the baby fat and his cheeks were gaunt but the resemblance to Riddle was uncanny. He and Dumbledore simply stared at each other for close to a minute. To the uninitiated, they might have been doing nothing.

But to those in the know, it was clear that the preliminary parts of the duel had passed already. It had passed in the mental plane where they had dueled with their minds rather than with magic. Now, it was transition to the physical, having clearly ended with a draw. Somewhat predictably, Voldemort was the one to strike first. Except that instead of the jet green of a killing curse, it was a sickly yellow spell that left his wand first. A spell that Dumbledore had to lift a wall from the ground to block. The spell hit the wall, and began to eat into it, making the earth itself rot as it pushed towards its target.

With a flick of his wand, the headmaster sent the wall flying in Voldemort’s direction. A Voldemort who roared his will and shattered the stone to pieces before it even came close to um.. This time, Dumbledore went on the offensive. Perhaps he felt a shift in the mood, perhaps he just thought Voldemort was distracted and couldn’t react. He sent a familiar red spell. It was a stunner. A stunner that Voldemort deflected with a contemptuous sneer. Except that as the stunner flew into the distance, it arced right around and continued towards him. At the same time, Dumbledore sent two more.

Voldemort was quick— his speed obviously enhanced by more than a few rituals so he managed to keep up with the barrage, deflecting eac spell as it came, until there were ten different streams of light converging at his position. This time, he spun his wand about himself and created a dome oF protective magic. Instead of deflecting each spell ,the dome just absorbed them. Each spell caused the dark lord to grimace but he still bore them all well. When they ran their course, Dumbledore sent his next few spells but they bit onto nothing ut air as Voldemort disappeared with a twirl of his cloak.